Week of November 17, 2014
Abbreviated Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
A Community Service To the Local Farming Community
Join Us At Market Off Main For Seed Rack Dedication
November 29 – 1:00 PM
3F to team with Ecology Florida and Market Off Main To bring Seed Savers Exchange Seeds to New Port Richey
Good gardens require good seeds, and Tampa Bay now has access to the highest quality seeds. These are Seed Savers Exchange heirloom, organic seeds. Your CSA has joined other groups committed to sustainability in sponsoring a Seed Savers Exchange seed rack in New Port Richey.
Through a cooperative arrangement with Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida, the Market Off Main, in New Port Richey, will soon offer a wide range of organic, heirloom, non-GMO seeds exclusively from Seed Savers Exchange. The seed display and sales area will be presented to the public on “Small Business Saturday,” November 29, with a dedication event at 1:00 PM
See full story at Ecology Florida News: http://www.ecologyflorida.org/2014/11/organic-heirloom-seeds-coming-soon-to-new-port-richey/
Okra Season Closes
Last Harvest November 13, 2014
Okra season is now officially over at 3F farms. This past week we harvested ¼ pound, bringing our total for the season to 99 ¾ lbs., total. This triples our harvest of last year — 31 pounds
Sweet Potatoe Harvest Concludes
Last Harvest October 27, 2014
The total harvest for this season was 241½ lbs. We had a wonderful season. Last year, we harvested 150 lbs and this year 250 lbs., and most were in good to excellent condition.
Planting & Harvest Notes
Fall Seeding and Garden Starts
Seedings: Cucumber, Picklebush (27), Double Yield (27); Tomato, Green Zebra (18); Kale, Lacinato (82); Swiss Chard, Gold Siverbeet (54)
Garden Overview
Fall Plantings and First Harvests
(additional details and assessments follows)
We are largely recovered from damages to garden from the last cold front. We’ve done some replanting, started seeds, and planted seedlings.
Shares remain relatively light, but the winter greens are beginning to come in. We have arugula, collards, and first shares of kale. Kale will be light (sample size).
We’ll might have enough late-season eggplant for shares, but we cannot guarantee. Eggplant will be first come first serve.
Sweet potatoes and okra are finished. We note November 13 as the last date for okra harvest this year.
We’ve continued at a pretty good pace for seeding and garden starts. This year will be our most extensive planting ever. We are going heavier on the cool-weather greens than we have in the past, and aiming to have at least 100 each of kale, collards, and swiss chard. We are aiming for 250 broccoli. We’ll forego cauliflower, and go heavy on broccoli. Our neighboring garden, Hart’s Family Farm, will be growing cabbage and cauliflower.
We have installed kales and collards, which are maturing nicely. Swiss chard is doing better now. As expected, the famous Calabrese is doing well, but we are behind in getting seedlings into the gardens. Arugula is thriving.
Tomatoes will be testers only, and only in set asides in the South Garden. Septoria has just been too hard on our tomatoes in previous years. For all plantings, we’ll use seeds from our collection or heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/).
Arugula
Arugua is thriving. There is enough for full shares for all shareholders. We were going to start some seeds, but there have been so many volunteers springing up all over the gardens, we will probably skip the formal seeding.
Kale
Kale is getting stronger by the day. We will have small shares available this week. We started more seeds this week, and installed more kale in the south garden. At this point, we are behind in the amount of kale we’d like to have in the garden. Recent seed starts have been less successful than expected. Cadle’s Cove Farm shared some kale, and we’ll install this in the coming week. Scarlet Kale finally germinated – on the 4th try. The strongest of the kales is the German Kale (Halbhoher Gruner Krauser), followed by the Lacinato. We have an entire bed of the Halbhoher in the south garden.
Collards
Georgia Southern Collards are trendsetters for the fall garden, and the Vates are coming on strong now. We did not start more Vates last week as we had planned. We’ll aim to do that this week
Swiss Chard
The swiss chard that survived the cold front is now doing quite well. A number of plants have large healthy leaves. It will likely be a couple more weeks before we have enough to harvest, but the cooler temperatures should accelerate growth. The most successful of the swiss chards are the Fordhook Giants. Cadle’s Cove shared Swiss Chard with us, and we dedicated a bed to those in the south garden.
Broccoli
We have started over 300 seeds, with 100% germination – remarkable. These are our (3F) Calabrese broccoli seeds. We still have 40 seedlings in the gardens, which is no increase from last week. We’ll try to plant more this week, we have plenty of seedlings. We are aiming to have 200 planted this year. Last year, we had 144.
– If you are starting a garden, please check with us first for seeds and seedlings. Our broccoli seeds are from the Calabrese family, and we’ve been harvesting these seeds since 2008. They are listed with Seed Savers Exchange. We offer them (and all our seeds) for sale at $3.00 for a packet (with a minimum of 30 seeds).
All our seeds are from our own harvests of heirloom varieties that have become locally acclimated. They are heavy producers with extended seasons. They typically out perform any commercially produced and packaged seeds. Also, by acquiring seeds from us (or other responsible local growers), you are keeping resources in the community. All 3F income goes directly back into the farms. Friendship Farms & Fare operates as a not-for-profit business under the charter of Ecology Florida, a 501 C3 corporation.
Spinach
The “American” seeds have germinated, at about 80%. They are spindly and narrow leaves.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are not a typical fall crop, but we’ve had success before, so we are trying again this year. These are a Japanese variety, Suyo. All have sprouted and we shared some with the folks at the EcoFest. We’ve germinated another variety we’ve had success with (Longfellows), and we’ll get those in the garden shortly. We also started new varieties for us: Double Yield and Picklebush. We’ll hope the Picklebush cucumbers avoid the pick worms!
Tomatoes
We are going with a good producer from previous seasons – the Wapsipinicon. This is a peach tomato, with ancestry going back to 1890. These are a bit larger than cherry tomatoes, yellow to almost white. They have a wonderful flavor. We are going with the Wapsipinicons because they have proven to be the most resistant to blight and septoria. We seeded 43 of the Wapsipinicons, and had almost 100% germination. Now, if we can avoid a freeze!
3F Produce for non-shareholders
Non-shareholders may order shares for $12 per week. For this nominal amount, contributors may request any items they desire from the weekly Share. Although we will assist with transmissions, it is the responsibility of the contributor to make arrangements for pick up of the share.
As always, non-shareholders may request single items from the share list for $5 per item. A full share for one week (any/all items) is $12.
Just reply using the website contact link if you desire anything on the list. We suggest non-shareholders start an account to cover costs of items.
The 3F Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project
Friendship Farms & Fare operates a unique small-scale (boutique) CSA, involving few participants, and using very basic management techniques. We are 100% organic and use permacultrures principles. Our program is recommended for single persons, couples, or (at most) three-person families. The cost of a share is low by typical CSA standards: $300 per garden year (October through September). This works out to a bit less than $6.00 per week. Donations are also gratefully received, with all donations going to maintenance and improvement of the gardens and groves.
If you are interested, contact: friendshipfarmsfare@gmail.com
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Visit the Friendship Farms & Fare website for the Weekly Farm Report:
http://www.fffsite.org/#!report/c1tuh
Friendship Farms & Fare is a branch of Ecology Florida, a not-for-profit corporation. Contributions to Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida are tax deductible. To learn more about Ecology Florida, please visit the website:
http://www.ecologyflorida.org/
If you would like to support our mission and individual projects, you may share donations through our website (above) or at our mailing address:
Ecology Florida
PO Box 596
New Port Richey, FL 34656-0596
Friendship Farms & Fare reaffirms, restores, and advances agrarian ideals to reestablish a sustainable culture
Natural, Economic, Cultural…bringing three ecologies together to regenerate a resilient future for all.
PO Box 596 ● New Port Richey, Florida 34656-0596
Ecology Florida advances the harmonious integration of healthy natural, cultural, and economic ecologies to regenerate a sustainable world
